A Mages Journal

How did this happen?

"Congratulations! You've achieved Level 50  
          Here's 100,000 gold as a reward"

The bright light of the achievement shone on the face of a young girl who sat crouched in her chair in front of the desk, her body covered by a dark hoodie two sizes too big allowing her to pull her knees to her chest inside the hoodie, her un-brushed brown hair draped past her shoulders and down her face in a mess of split ends and stray hairs. She stared blankly at the screen in front of her with her dead, green eyes as a small smile cracked across her face. Alone in this dark room, the only light came from her computer and monitor for every window was closed and all curtains drawn. No sound. No nothing. Until she heard three incredibly loud bangs at her door!

"Yo! You awake?!"

The girl mumbled something inaudible

"I heard a mumble I'm coming in!"

The door swung open letting light bleed into the room ,causing the girls smile to drop and highlighting the shelves of custom D&D figurines. There stood a tall male dressed in baggy, blue jeans, leather belt and a short sleeved, graphic t-shirt, his hair sat as a controlled mess of black hair atop his head with bright green eyes glistening in the light. He carried with him a tray holding a cup of sweet tea and pot noodles. It was her brother.

"You still playing your game?" he asked

The girl gave him a small nod

"How far you got?"

"Level 50" the girl mumbled

Her brother walked over to sit on the edge of the bed behind her, placing the tray beside him then proceeded to look around the room to see many cans of multiple fizzy drinks lying on the floor and her mini-fridge that sat under her desk empty. He looked at the girl with a disapproving glare.

"Have you taken a break from your game today?" he asked inquisitively

The girl stayed silent

"What have you eaten today?" he continued to ask

The girl still remained silent and started to sink into her chair

"Phoebe Lorain Johnsen what have you had to eat today?" he asked demanding an answer

"Full name hum?"

The man stood up to spin the chair around, forcing his little sister to face him with a stirn look on his face as he rest his hand above her head on top of her chair so she couldn't run from his question. Phoebe looked up at him through her hair.

"Well Max Lou Johnsen, if you must know, I've eaten the leftovers from last night's dinner" she said with a smirk

Max was unimpressed and handed her the tray of noodles and tea telling her to eat as he sat back down on her bed as she happily gobbled up the noodles.

"I swear, if I wasn't around to take care of you, you'd die" he said with a grumble

"That's why you're here" Phoebe said smugly

"Phoebs, you're 17. When are you going to do something with your life? You refused to go to college, you won't get a job, I just..." Max was interrupted

"You forget, you're 24, and sill wive wif yo famawy"

"Don't talk with your mouth full" Max said unimpressed

Phoebe proceeded to stuff her face with as much food as possible, to the point she looked like a chipmunk to ask "whaf fo yo meen?" causing Max to start laughing and once Phoebe swallowed her food, she started laughing as well.

However, as Phoebe attempted to place her noodles on her desk behind her she missed causing the pot to fall to the floor with a small thud. Both siblings looked at the pot with a blank stare.

"oops. I missed" Phoebe mumbled

Max chuckled "How do you miss a desk?"

Phoebe looked back at her brother "How do you miss every class in university?"

Max looked back up "okay that was not my fault"

"How? You were fully in control, you lived by yourself"

"It was my phones fault for not waking me up on time"

Unfortunately, as the two siblings bicker like children, the broth from the noodles seeped out the pot and trickled to the cables of Phoebe's computer. When the broth and cables collided the computer started to spark catching the attention of Max. Max's eyes widened at the sparks coming off the cables, in a panic he lunged forward to protect his sister as the sparks grew larger, as Phoebe turned to see what was going on the computer started to emit an array of colored sparks. She knew she wouldn't be able to move quick enough out of the way as her knees were still tucked into her hoodie but noticed the colors coming off her computer were completely abnormal, no computer emits green sparks. She knew something strange was bound to happen, she'd watched enough anime and played enough video games to know what was happening.

Max's only goal was to protect his sister so seeing a possible fire so close was a nightmare to him, as he jumped to protect Phoebe, she remained still, in his mind she was frozen with fear. He needed to find something to smother the sparks and clean the broth away from the computer before it hurt Phoebe. He quickly reached for a shirt laying on the floor to attempt to cover the computer to negate the sparks, although he heard Phoebe yelling at him he couldn't exactly make out what she was saying. Phoebe was trying to tell him to stop before he got hurt and grabbed a small notebook when he went to cover the computer while Phoebe attempted to grab his shirt.

A small flash of light caused them both to vanish almost into thin air.

But the sparks still remained